> > > >symposium on urban environments that the School of Public Health held
> > > >with the Graduate School of Design: "For the architects, designing
> > > >spaces to encourage physical activity wasn't even on the table."'
> > > >http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/050465.html
> > >
>
> In what conceivable way is it the responsibility of city designers,
> architects, the government, or anyone but ME to encourage my own
> physical activity?
Easy, have politicians work to accomplish something good like this.
Then you would'n have to risk your life to save your life...
COPENHAGEN'S 10-STEP PROGRAM
1. CONVERT STREETS INTO PEDESTRIAN THOROUGHFARES
The city turned its traditional main street, Stroget, into a
pedestrian thoroughfare in 1962. In succeeding decades they gradually
added more pedestrian-only streets, linking them to
pedestrian-priority streets, where walkers and cyclists have
right-of-way but cars are allowed at low speeds.
2. REDUCE TRAFFIC AND PARKING GRADUALLY
To keep traffic volume stable, the city reduced the number of cars in
the city center by eliminating parking spaces at a rate of 2-3 percent
per year. Between 1986 and 1996 the city eliminated about 600 spaces.
3. TURN PARKING LOTS INTO PUBLIC SQUARES
The act of creating pedestrian streets freed up parking lots, enabling
the city to transform them into public squares.
4. KEEP SCALE DENSE AND LOW
Low-rise, densely spaced buildings allow breezes to pass over them,
making the city center milder and less windy than the rest of
Copenhagen.
5. HONOR THE HUMAN SCALE
The city's modest scale and street grid make walking a pleasant
experience; its historic buildings, with their stoops, awnings, and
doorways, provide people with impromptu places to stand and sit.
6. POPULATE THE CORE
More than 6,800 residents now live in the city center. They've
eliminated their dependence on cars, and at night their lighted
windows give visiting pedestrians a feeling of safety.
7. ENCOURAGE STUDENT LIVING
Students who commute to school on bicycles don't add to traffic
congestion; on the contrary, their active presence, day and night,
animates the city.
8. ADAPT THE CITYSCAPE TO CHANGING SEASONS
Outdoor cafes, public squares, and street performers attract thousands
in the summer; skating rinks, heated benches, and gaslit heaters on
street corners make winters in the city center enjoyable.
9. PROMOTE CYCLING AS A MAJOR MODE OF TRANSPORTATION
The city established new bike lanes and extended existing ones. They
placed bike crossings – using space freed up by the elimination of
parking – near intersections. Currently 34 percent of Copenhageners
who work in the city bicycle to their jobs.
10. MAKE BICYCLES AVAILABLE
The city introduced the City Bike system in 1995, which allows anyone
to borrow a bike from stands around the city for a small coin deposit.
When finished, they simply leave them at any one of the 110 bike
stands located around the city center and their money is refunded.
http://www.newurbanism.org/pages/519562/index.htm
